Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
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| Beach music comes to the mountains |
Donna Brantley of Greensboro dances with Don Watts of Stuart at the Hot Fun in the Summertime XXVIII beach music festival at Wayside Park near Stuart on Saturday. An estimated 3,000 people turned out for a weekend of sun and music. (Bulletin photos by Mike Wray) |
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Sunday, June 14, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Southwestern Virginia residents did not have to drive six hours to get to the beach this weekend, Bruce Maass of Ferrum pointed out Saturday afternoon.
Instead, the beach came to them — sort of.
Maass and his wife, Donna, were among an estimated 3,000 people who attended the Hot Fun in the Summertime XXVIII beach music festival at Wayside Park near Stuart this weekend.
“You don’t have to travel far to have a good time,” said Maass.
Tickets were $45 or less. At such prices, “you can see half a dozen groups at one time for a good price,” said Roger Shook of Roanoke.
Many families brought campers and stayed for the entire festival.
Some of the hottest groups in beach music — Showtime, the Band of Oz, The Embers, the Foddrells and Mardi Gras with Sammy O’Banion — were on the stage Saturday.
Friday night, performers included Showtime, the Foddrells and Billy Scott & the Party Prophets.
Shook said he has enjoyed listening to beach music since he was a child. He recalled seeing The Embers perform at the beach about 25 years ago.
Members of the band have “changed a lot” over the years, but the band is still good, he said.
Festival-goers sat in lawn chairs or on beach blankets on the hillside overlooking the covered staged where the bands performed. At the front of the stage was a large sand pit where many people danced.
Nancy Hazelwood of Patrick County passed on that opportunity.
“I’m too old to get out and dance!” she laughed as she stretched out in a lawn chair near a travel trailer.
She was comfortable, but maybe not as comfortable as an unidentified man who was sleeping in a hammock under a tent at a nearby trailer.
The laid-back atmosphere is what most people enjoyed at the festival. They roamed the park with food and beverages. Many of the women were wearing swimsuits, and some of the men were shirtless.
“This is not a fashion show,” Donna Maass said. “Anything goes on the fashion end” of things.
When a brief shower erupted at mid-afternoon on Saturday, many people — including those wearing swimsuits — kept walking around the park or sitting and listening to the bands. But some people quickly pitched beach umbrellas or ran under a covered area.
Many people brought picnic lunches. Those who did not had their choice of several concessions trailers. T-shirts and sundresses also were for sale.
Hazelwood said the crowd at the annual festival seemed to be a little less this year, but Martinsville Mayor Kathy Lawson, who was working at the ticket booth, said the crowds this year and last year seemed about the same.
Lawson said, however, that wet weather during the past two weeks seemed to cause fewer people to buy advance tickets, fearing the festival would be rained out. They bought tickets at the gate instead.
And on Saturday, “people started coming in slower” due to the dark clouds over parts of Patrick County, she said. Some people “decided at the last minute” to come to the festival. |
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